Hi!

I am having problems with a CGI script serving VRML.

THe CGI script is in python and I am using Apache to serve it (and
Apache is serving .wrl files OK)

The simplest script is something like:

print "Content-type: model/vrml"
print "Pragma: no-cache"
print

fln = "fog.wrl"
file = open( fln, "r" )
buff = file.read()
file.close()
print buff

The file displays OK if I use http://www.*-*-*.com/

But using CGI I only get a blank screen.

My vrml browser is ParallelGraphics Cortona pluged into MSIE.

Any ideas of what I might be doing wrong?

Best regards
Jos Rui

--
========================================================================
What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value
of nothing. - Oscar Wilde.
========================================================================
Iam://Jos Rui Faustino de Sousa http://www.*-*-*.com/ ~jrfsousa/

address://rua Carlos A. Pinto de Abreu no 30C, 1o 3040 Coimbra Portugal
========================================================================
Real Programmers do sig blocks in fortran 95.
========================================================================

perhaps you need:

file=open(fln,"rb")

[snip]

Then the CGI is certainly sending something different than what you get with
the static file.  What happens if you *link* to the CGI, and then choose to
save the link rather than opening it?  Odds are it is sending something
strange, like the VRML file header followed by the entire file with no
newlines, thus making the entire file look like a comment to the browser.

--Steve

Makes no difference I tryed it before in the command line and it chugged
out the .wrl file properly...

Like:

Content-type: model/vrml
Pragma: no-cache

#VRML V2.0 utf8

Fog {
        color 1.0 1.0 1.0
        fogType "EXPONENTIAL"
        visibilityRange 20.0

Background {skyColor 1.0 1.0 1.0 }

(a lot more sniped)

The browser saves as a .wrl file and inside is a perfectly good vrml
code wich I can open afterwards with no problem with the VRML browser.

The brownser seams to be able to recognize the file type as VRML so I
expected it should be getting the headers properly as it defaults to
.wrl type file and the code inside is perfectly well formed with the
proper newlines exactly like the original file.

Best regards
Jos Rui

--
========================================================================
College professors are suspect because whenever emotion is in control,
anti-intellectualism prevails. - Gordon W. Allport.
========================================================================
Iam://Jos Rui Faustino de Sousa http://homepage.esoterica.pt/~jrfsousa/

address://rua Carlos A. Pinto de Abreu no 30C, 1o 3040 Coimbra Portugal
========================================================================
Real Programmers do sig blocks in Fortran 95.
========================================================================

I'm stumped then.  Can you throw up working links to both the CGI and the
static world?  Maybe somebody else on this list can help you.

--Steve

The kindly Rev. overheard "Jos Rui Faustino de Sousa"

How about:

#!/bin/sh
echo "Content-type: text/html"
echo "Pragma: no-cache"
echo ""
cat fog.wrl

--
Rev. Bob "Bob" Crispen
crispen at hiwaay dot net

Chaos, panic, & disorder - my work here is done.

I will try another VRML browser and see what happens...

Unfortunately not. I do not have a "real" connection to the internet...

Thank you very much.

Best regards
Jos Rui

--
========================================================================
It cannot be intellectually honest to undertake to teach a subject but
to omit its most important principle. It [teaching biology without
evolution] would, nowadays, be like teaching physics but leaving out
atoms. - George Gaylord Simpson.
========================================================================
Iam://Jos Rui Faustino de Sousa http://homepage.esoterica.pt/~jrfsousa/

address://rua Carlos A. Pinto de Abreu no 30C, 1o 3040 Coimbra Portugal
========================================================================
Real Programmers do sig blocks in Fortran 95.
========================================================================

Hi,
i've loaded some testfiles in my BS/Browser/VR-Viewer configuration (W9x/NS4.75/Cosmo2.1) and
get only this header work (local):

#VRML V2.0 utf8
#Content-type: model/vrml
#Pragma: no-cache
...

not working are:
#Content-type: model/vrml
#Pragma: no-cache
#VRML V2.0 utf8
and:
Content-type: model/vrml
Pragma: no-cache
#VRML V2.0 utf8

I think the "#commented Metatags" in the .wrl file have no effect. It seems to be a
Apache-config problem and the  "forcetype"-option solve it. Place the python-scripts which
serves vrml-content in an extra folder. More details at:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_mime.html#forcetype
Maybe you have to add it to the cgi-folder-option too. (Info around the link above).

--eb

Windows here... No sh... ;-)

Closest thing batch files:

echo Content-type: model/vrml
echo Pragma: no-cache
echo.
type fog.wrl

This works OK.

Now it seams that the problem is really with the python script...

I have tryed:

Content-type: text/html

I get an improperly formated .wrl file.

But I would say the problem here is with html... no <br> or <p></p> to
separate lines...

And:

Content-type: text/plain

I get the properly formated .wrl file.

No idea what might be wrong...

Best regards
Jos Rui

--
========================================================================
The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of
zeal, well meaning but without understanding. - Louis Brandeis.
========================================================================
Iam://Jos Rui Faustino de Sousa http://homepage.esoterica.pt/~jrfsousa/

address://rua Carlos A. Pinto de Abreu no 30C, 1o 3040 Coimbra Portugal
========================================================================
Real Programmers do sig blocks in Fortran 95.
========================================================================

Hi again,
maybe a syntax error

Content-Type = "Content-Type" ":" media-type NL
(from:
http://CGI-Spec.Golux.Com/cgi-120-00a.html#8.0
)

Important is the space between "Content-Type" ":"
missing in your posting.

eb

PS: Can't test it, because no Apache working here today.

.